Project: Hold Representing Hold I had a few ideas as to how I should represent the subject. All of which were quite literal: people on the street holding bags, hands or each other brackets, mortar, hardware or rope supporting structures shelving, signs and bicycle locks. After three separate walks around my neighborhood mentally chanting "hold, hold, hold, hold...", and framing very obvious and very uninteresting shots, I realized that I was over complicating things. HOLD!... hold something you fool! So I returned to base, found an area with a decent amount of natural light and I held things. Lots of things. I held them and shot them. At first, I held several inanimate objects which just weren't going to cut it. (a pistol, a knife, a book - about pistols and knives) And then I narrowed it down to textures; not shapes. Getting a drink of water in the kitchen I stood in front of the spice rack as a jar of basil waved at me. The sugar bowl and the glass of water in my hand followed its lead. I immediately liked the idea. The three textures I chose were dynamic enough, yet similar enough to form an aesthetic trio, especially when arranged linearly as they are above. I liked the idea of my hand's unique features forming the background for the shots. However I came to realize that the simplicity of my idea was both paragon and a bit arduous. Never before, had I felt so in control of my subject and never before, had I felt so hand-cuffed to it. Resting the back of my left hand on a table, I framed and focussed with my right hand. This 1/2 meter distance combined with fading evening light was causing considerable frustration... Technically speaking My lens choice was easy; I used my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 prime. Its a fast lens; great in low light situations and tack sharp. My dilemma was this: I wanted to capture the detail of what I was holding as well the lines in my skin. I wanted the entire gammot in focus. A big fan of the Aperture Priority function on my D80, I decided on an aperture range of f/7.1 to f/10 to attain the detail I desired. Treating my scenes as miniature landscapes I used my tripod and bracketed (+/- .03EV) three to four shots of my hand holding the basil, sugar and water. Closing down the aperture any more required a slower shutter speed and consequently revealed the slightest movement of my hand in the image. Transversly, opening up the aperture decreased my depth of field such that only a single, very defined plane was in focus as opposed to the entire scene. In the end, I settled for the three captures you see above. Their exposure data is as follows: Basil: 1/10 sec @ f/7.1, ISO 200. Sugar: 1/6 sec @ f/10, ISO 200. Water: 1/6 sec @ f/8, ISO 200. Note: It would have been nice if I had noticed my ISO was set at 200. I'd have much rather preferred the detail of ISO 100! Work flow I processed these three images using similar paths. The Raw files were imported into Lightroom, cropped to a 1X1 aspect ratio and converted to grayscale. Using the Develop feature in the module picker I adjusted the exposure, blacks, brightness, contrast, clarity, highlights, darks, lights, shadows and just barely bumped up the sharpness. Off to Photoshop! Bringing the files into CS2 I adjusted the levels considerably and used the Channel Mixer in Monochrome mode to adjust the red and green source channels. I was surprised at how much detail I was able to pull out of the grains of sugar adjusting the green slider. (which is the only image I feel I could not properly expose to get the detail of the grain I desired) That's it. Conclusion I enjoyed the project from a technical and photological standpoint. It was great for me to branch out into another area of photography; to step out of my comfort zone and work in a new area. It was a lot of fun encountering new obstacles and learning how to best get around them. Am I happy with the results? Yes. Could they be improved? Yes. We'll see what next week's mini-project has in store for me.